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Scan Presents: Christmas in July

Christmas in July – a Song and a Poem

Every year my sister, Patti, tends her flower gardens from early spring to the first frosts of late autumn.

As she took me on a tour of her flower beds one afternoon, she grinned with pride when she pointed out her roses. Every flower gardener I have ever known has loved their rose bushes and each one has shown tremendous pride in the beauty of the flowers on a rose bush.

Last August, Patti brought me a birthday bouquet she had created from her flower beds – and the prize flower in the bouquet was a very stunning pink rose! I think no matter how much a gardener loves all the flowers they have blooming, it is the rose bushes that seem to elicit the most pride and happiness to them. Roses are the dazzling queens of the flower bids. They seems to be the proverbial “icing on the cake.”

***Photo by Lynda McKinney Lambert:

Patti’s Flowers on my Dining Room Table

Ah, yes, I contend that the rose is Queen of all Flowers!

I am certain of it! As you begin doing some research on the “rose” as an iconic image, you will soon find references to

Mary, the Queen of Heaven and Earth.

She is often depicted with a rose in her hand, or surrounded by roses. Roses are used as garlands in art and sculpture and roses are used to encircle the Queen of Heaven. Roses are a halo at times in Christian lore as well as in pre-Christian mythology. Mary’s son, Jesus Christ, is symbolized as a rose. King Solomon described Jesus as “the rose of Sharon.” You can find this particular reference in The Song of Solomon, 2:1. There are many other such references as well.

***

In a popular German Christmas song,

these words are from an Eighteenth Century poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe;

“es ist ein Ros entsprungen.”

This can be translated in English to

“A Rose has sprung.”

You may recognize this Christmas song as “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming” or “A Spotless Rose.” This song is a Protestant Christmas Carol and a Catholic Marian hymn that originated in Germany. I remember it from my childhood when we all stood to sing carols together at the small Methodist Church in my village.

Listen to this song in English:

***

I sat down to consider the pleasure of

a visit with my daughter, Ilsa

Below you will read a poem about her visit and something we did together. Sometimes, it is unusual when we think of a child teaching a parent a lesson of some sort. But, here in my poem, a daughter teaches me a lesson in a unique way.

This poem, “When My Daughter Cuts the Roses,” marks the beginning of Advent in our home. The bouquet of flowers on my dining room table today reminds me that now is the Season of Hope. As I listen to the latest news from around the world, it feels like the whole world is longing for hope right now – Oh, I know! It does appear the the entire planet is in deep distress. The EARTH could be laboring for the birth of HOPE. Perhaps there is a longing for hope in the souls of Earth’s people and all of NATURE.

On the First Week of Advent we can choose to keep our thoughts and our eyes focused on HOPE as we light that first candle.

There is great beauty in the symbols of the weekly lighting of the Advent candles. When the FIRST WEEK OF ADVENT comes this year, we can pause to embrace the message of the ROSE and the coming of the LIGHT, who is promised from ancient times.

Ah, yes! As I complete the writing of this essay, I am hearing a tune in my mind.

This Flower, whose fragrance tender with sweetness fills the air, Dispels with glorious splendor the darkness everywhere; True man, yet very God, from sin and death He saves us, And lightens every load.

(Final stanza of “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming)

***

“When my Daughter Cuts the Roses”

My daughter looked

At the bouquet of fresh roses

noticed two of them were drooping.

“Let me show you how to trim the roses

so they stay fresh and strong.” she said.

Her hands held the roses firmly

one-by-one, trimmed off extra leaves

“These will make the water stink,” she said.

She found scissors in the drawer

put the roses in a bowl of tepid water

held each stem under water

sliced them all, diagonally –

“As I cut the rose under the water,

little bubbles of air come to the surface.

Now, when the rose inhales

it will only breathe water into it,

it won’t fill up with air.

The living water inside the stems

gives longer life to each rose.”

She carried the freshened flowers

In the tall glass vase

back to the center of the dining room table

darkest crimson buds, sunny yellow petals,

deep green fern leaves

and a frilly white carnation.

***

This essay & poem is brought to you by the author, Lynda McKinney Lambert.